St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-05-19
TO BE OR NOT TO BE.
Harper's Barr.

There is something both vexatlOui
and amusing in the perpetual outcry
against whatever order of garments il
may be that women see fit to wear and
afford the most prominence, whether
it is crinOline, trains, bustles, or bon
nets, or the feathers in the bOnnets.
To a great extent crinOline and
Fl trains have been abolished not by any
means through the outcry against
them, but solely and simply because
women tired of them, and because
something more expedient and attrac-
tive presented itself 1t would be diff
ficuIt, indeed, to find anything neater
= or more comfortable than the present
dress of women, which allows easy To-
cOmOtiOn, gives little care, and the
weight of whose skirts is largely borne
by their own arrangement. As for the
Objectionable high bonnet, about which
SO much is said, it is the fashion. And
while it is the fashion not all the para
graphs in creation will do away with
it.
If it were a low bonnet, there would
. be just as many paragraphs assalllng
il, for its undress want of dignity and
4 affected humility and unwhOlesOme
warmth, as there are now for its su-
perfluOus majesty and Obtrusiveness.
If the feminine victim answered the
assaults constantly made, and assaulted
the masculine toilette as she finds her
own assailed, it is just possible that
there might be great deal on the end
of her pen that would not be pleasant
reading-a toilette, the masculine, the
ugliest that could be cOntrived by that
utilitarian idea which is the barest of
beauty, with the exception of the trOu
sers the most incOnvenient and the
most unreasonable, with It's buckram
of starch and linen, its heating and
cumbrOus dressing of the throat, its
& thin backed and thick -frOnted waist
coat, its half-hOse, its Tapping, mean
ingless coat, and over all its tall hat,
which is the delight of the half-civil-
4 lied North American squaw, who
wrapped in her blanket and adorned
with her silver breastplates, feels her
self only in full dress when her long
and well-greased locks are surmOunted
by the same article-a mans tall silk
hat. Looking at the prevailing mas
culine costume, that of the English, the
French, the American, from the point
of view which takes any artistic pleas
ure of the eye into consideration, there
& is no other in the world, barbarian or
civilized, SO entirely unlOvely. The
\ Scotch Highlander, the Greek Alba
Man, the desert Arab, the Turk and the
Chinese have all more picturesque and
>~mOre artistic costumes, while it is an
eye-sOre tn any lover of beauty, us ev-
cry painter will tell you, and the only
I advantage it possesses is that one can
N get about easily in it.
y Why the individuals who array
themselves in this inglOriOus and in
artistic dress, our own fathers and
brothers and husbands though they be,
should presume to find fault with the
dress of their wives and sisters, that
cannot possibly, it would seem, be
more absurd or inartistic, is one of the
mysteries not to be solved by any
simple guess word. 1t is, at any rate,
the idlest sort of fault-finding for
whether it is fortunate or otherwise,
nothing that can be said by men,
either in approval or disapproval, will
change matters after the edict has
gone forth, and the first suit, or the
fist bonnet, or the first outside wrap,
of the seasons novelty has once been
seen. No whims of those who are not
to wear these articles will prevail
against them, no sarcasmS Will destroy
them the whole masculine world may
woman of them all less unpleasantly
than it would to be seen by other wOm-
ell in anything conspicuous by means
of a fragrant defiance or apparent ig-
nOrance of the fashion. She knows
well enough that men do not admire
her for her clothes she knows well
enough that if she had the beauty of
the daughter of Tyndarus, men would
not admire her if she had not Cd the
suitable clothes, if she did not, as
Helen did, ''sladOw her beauty in
white veils"-evidently the Trojan
style at that day. 1t is strange, but
it would seem to be self-evident, that
she prefers the admiration of women,
were it not for the fact that she knows
men are going to admire her anyway,
and save for exceptional instances
would, after all the trouble, admire her
none the less, and find fault with her
much the more, if she made herself
appear strong minded or egotistical by
refusing to wear what all other women
wear, because of her own individual
dislike or disapproval of it. One can
well fancy the CONSERVATION and alarm
that would Overtake husband or n
father ii he saw the women of his
household going on the street in Greek
SlHl implicitly III -lHe udy . VI Ino oouudus
tOurnure, or with their skirts entirely
above their boots during the reign OF
the long flowing drapery.
The only person, man or woman,
who ever succeeded in dressing so as
to escape observation and ObjurgatiOn
and yet be in the height of the pre-
vailing fashion, was Robinson CrusOe,
aud he only before his man Friday APP
Deared mon the scene: and women
will have to follow his example, so far
as resOrting to desert island in mid
seas goes, if they wish to share his
comfortable immunity.